Photographer's Most Fundamental Traits - Fascination And Enthusiasm

Do you think you are eligible to call yourself a photographer simply because you are interested in photography? Well, no. It doesn't work that way. There are more fundamental things that you probably have already possess that are considered as the basic traits for every photographer.

Many people are interested in photography in some nebulous way; they might be interested in the seemingly glamorous live of top fashion or war photographers; or in the acquisition an admiration of beautiful, functional machines, the cameras; o in the arcane ritual of the darkroom processes; or in the person which they could adopt if only they took pictures like . . whoever. But these interests, no matter how personally enjoyable they might be, never lead to the person becoming a photographer The reason is that photography is only a tool, vehicle, for expressing or transmitting a passion in something else. It is not the end result. An analogy would be to buy a car for its status appeal, for the idea that it will improve your sex-life, for the smell of the new upholstery, for the fascination with its beautiful engineering, and so on. But it is useless unless it actually take you somewhere

The destination of photography is to reveal what something or somebody looked like, under a particular set of conditions, at a particular moment in time, and to transmit the result t others. However, a word of caution should be inserted here. It does not imply merely bland records of anything. Some pictures are obviously more interesting, more beautiful, more inspiring than others, even of the same subject matter. More than that, they are indelibly stamped with the unique style, for want of better word, of the individuals who made them. So what transforms these simple record into pictures of lasting merit

It comes down to the choice of subject. The photographer must have intense curiosity, no just a passing visual interest, in the theme of the pictures. This curiosity leads to intense examination, reading, talking, research and many, many failed attempts over a long period of time. In order to photograph with an degree of continuous passion, you must have a fascination for the subject, otherwise you cannot sustain an interest in the act of creation for a long enough period of time in which to make any insightful or original statement about it.

The reason for a young photographer's confusion is that most teachers, classes, workshops books, whatever, imply that how the picture is made, what techniques were employed why it looks different and artistic, is more important than the subject matter. Ye the photographer is, primarily, a subject-selector. Much as it might offend the artistically inclined, the history of photography is primarily the history of the subject matter. So photographer's first decision is what to photograph. Your curiosity, fascination and enthusiasm for this subject can be communicated to others through the pictures you take of it.